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to endanger his life and when interrogated by us (?) relative to this case he stated that he did not know enough about law to distinguish a civil from a criminal case."
It fills me with grief that I am obliged to call in question either the veracity of a Major General or his intentions. The freedman Frank Atkinson did not stab another so severely as to endanger his life, this I told General Steedman expressly, Atkinson had some trouble with another freedman in the Hotel where both were employed as waiters and they finally came to blows; he was sentenced as the guilty party to be confined for twenty days in the county jail, which upon the earnest pleading of his employers who could not well spare his services, was commuted to twenty five dollars fine. The man appealed however from my decision which was not reversed. General Steedman further reports my having said that "I did not know enough about law to distinguish a civil from a criminal case". I simply said that I did not regard the Statute law of North Carolina as binding on me before civil law was restored and that my instructions